The Rise and Regulation of MDMA

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This chapter chronicles the transition of MDMA from a therapeutic agent to a popular club drug in the 1980s, highlighting cultural shifts and underground production. It features key moments such as Anne Shulgin's letter to President Reagan advocating for MDMA's therapeutic use, amidst the DEA's increasing regulatory scrutiny. The Shulgins' personal experiences and their memoir 'PCOL' reveal the complexities of navigating drug research and legality during a turbulent era.

In 1980s Berkeley, an eccentric chemist and his wife, a self-taught therapist, experimented with MDMA. Their work would kickstart a decades-long campaign to mainstream psychedelics as a therapeutic tool — one that’s coming to a head this month, with a decision due from the FDA.

This episode was reported and produced by Haleema Shah, edited by Lissa Soep and Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Andrea Kristinsdottir and Rob Byers, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. It’s the first in a series supported with a grant from the Ferriss–UC Berkeley Psychedelic Journalism Fellowship.

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